KD’s Pan-American Trek #2 – Alaska to Yukon

Join me on a Pan-American journey from one end of the Americas to the other, using Google Street View!

In my first installment (link), we went from Deadhorse, Alaska south down the Dalton Highway. It’s about 650 km until you hit the Fairbanks, the most populated metro area in the state, with about 100,000 residents.

This was my first encounter with the question: How do you virtually tour a city? If you are physically there, you would probably do research on cool things to see and do, determine how to get there, and do it. I can’t go “inside” anywhere though so my choices are limited to what can be seen from the street. On the other hand, I can go anywhere I want in a city quickly and safely.

The more cities and towns I went through, the more I found I was in need of a theme for the trip. It was still early though so these shots from Fairbanks are pretty random thematically.

Fairbanks is one of the coldest cities in the U.S., but on this day we can find snowless streets decorated with flowers…

Trees with glorious fall colors (note the Street View camera shadow)…

And even a shirtless bicyclist.

Check out the humorous sign for the Lacey Street Theatre: "Fairbanks Ice Museum: Our Assets Are Frozen".

Here’s a panorama of downtown. 

It takes a long time to hit the next town, Tok, Alaska, which according to Wikipedia, is one of the most isolated towns in the U.S. Better get gas here while you can!

We cross over the border into the Yukon Territory in Canada. This is a land of vast beauty and few people. 

We finally arrive in Whitehorse, Yukon’s largest city. In general, I found Canada’s cities to be mostly new and highly pragmatic and functional. In other words, kind of boring from a Street View perspective… It’s good to know we can get a freezer in the Yukon!